Refugees and border detections
Five large camps on 31 August 2026, five cards from the 2025 refugee trends, and European Union border detections for 2024 and 2025.
Refugees under UNHCR mandate
People who fled across an international border and remain under the mandate of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). Global Trends 2025, published on 11 June 2026, puts that stock at 35.6 million at the end of 2025, about 3 percent fewer than a year earlier, still near record levels.
People who crossed an international border and whom UNHCR counts as refugees, people in a refugee like situation, or other people in need of international protection, on 31 December 2025. Asylum seekers waiting for a decision are listed beside this stock.
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Stock, end of 2025
Refugees under UNHCR mandate
35.6 million people, end of 2025
35.6 million people were refugees, people in a refugee like situation, or other people in need of international protection under the UNHCR mandate at the end of 2025, about 3 percent fewer than a year earlier, still near record levels.
- Refugees, including refugee like situations
- 28.5 million
- Other people in need of international protection
- 7.2 million
- Palestine refugees under UNRWA
- about 6 million
- Asylum seekers waiting for a decision
- almost 9 million
Year end stock of people who fled across an international border and need international protection under the UNHCR mandate. It includes about 28.5 million refugees, including people in a refugee like situation, and 7.2 million other people in need of international protection.
About 6 million Palestine refugees under the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) sit beside this figure. Together, the broader refugees figure is about 41.6 million. Almost 9 million asylum seekers were still waiting for a decision at the end of 2025.
Global Trends 2025 links the decline mainly to returns in large situations, especially Afghanistan, Syria, and Sudan, and notes that many returns happened under pressure, into fragile conditions.
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Hosts, end of 2025
Where refugees are hosted
1/3 in five host countries, end of 2025
Five countries hosted about one third of refugees and other people in need of international protection under this scope at the end of 2025: Colombia 2.8 million, Germany 2.7 million, Türkiye 2.4 million, Uganda 1.9 million, Iran 1.7 million.
- Colombia
- 2.8 million
- Germany
- 2.7 million
- Türkiye
- 2.4 million
- Uganda
- 1.9 million
- Iran
- 1.7 million
End of 2025 host stocks from Global Trends and the Refugee Data Finder, for refugees, people in a refugee like situation, and other people in need of international protection.
Colombia’s figure is driven largely by Venezuelans with protection status. Germany and Türkiye are high income and upper middle income hosts with different legal pathways. Uganda and Iran are major neighbouring hosts. Low and middle income countries host 68 percent of this population. Least developed countries host 26 percent, about 9.4 million people.
Cox’s Bazar and Dadaab appear in the camp list on this page. A large host country can have few large camps. Most refugees worldwide live outside camps.
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Origins, end of 2025
Where refugees come from
2/3 from five countries of origin, end of 2025
About two thirds of refugees and other people in need of international protection under this scope came from five countries at the end of 2025: Venezuela 6.5 million, Ukraine 5.2 million, Syria 4.9 million, Afghanistan 3.7 million, Sudan 2.8 million.
- Venezuela
- 6.5 million
- Ukraine
- 5.2 million
- Syria
- 4.9 million
- Afghanistan
- 3.7 million
- Sudan
- 2.8 million
Origin stocks for the same population as the host list. More than 70 percent come from six countries when South Sudan is included with those five.
Syrian refugee numbers fell to about 4.9 million by the end of 2025 after large returns. Afghan numbers fell to about 3.7 million. Ukrainian figures remain high under temporary protection and related statuses counted in this scope. Venezuelans remain the largest origin group among other people in need of international protection across the Americas.
About 5.4 million people were forced to flee across a border during 2025. That flow is counted apart from this stock.
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Pattern, end of 2025
Most refugees stay nearby
65% in neighbouring countries, end of 2025
65 percent of refugees and other people in need of international protection lived in countries neighbouring their origin at the end of 2025. 68 percent were hosted in low and middle income countries.
- Neighbouring countries
- 65%
- Low and middle income countries
- 68%
- Protracted situations, five years or more
- about 70%
These shares describe where the stock lives. Detections at the external borders of the European Union are in the border section on this page.
About 70 percent of refugees under this scope were in protracted situations, five years or more without an immediate lasting solution. Global Trends 2025 counts about 24.9 million people in just over 1,300 such situations in low and middle income countries.
Neighbouring and lower income hosting is the lasting pattern in this series.
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Returns, 2025
Refugee returns in 2025
4.4 million returns in 2025
Nearly 4.4 million refugees returned to their countries of origin in 2025, among the highest return years on record. Over 90 percent went back to three countries: Afghanistan (about 1.9 million), Syria (about 1.3 million), and Sudan (about 651,500).
- Afghanistan
- about 1.9 million
- Syria
- about 1.3 million
- Sudan
- about 651,500
Refugee returns during calendar 2025, as reported in Global Trends. The agency warns that many returns happened under adverse circumstances, to areas where insecurity and weak services persist. A return counts as a movement during the year.
Returns of people displaced inside their own country are in the internal displacement section on the migration page. Resettlement and sponsorship arrivals fell by more than half, to about 81,800 in 2025.
Return volume rose. Safety and reintegration often lagged that headline.
Global Trends 2025 covers calendar 2025. Stock is the population on 31 December 2025. Returns are movements during that year. The lists below come from the report and the Refugee Data Finder.
Sources
Largest camps and settlements
Five named settlements with a published headcount. The date on each card is the date of that figure: 31 August 2026.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) keeps its own register of Palestine refugees. The five settlements below use published headcounts for those named sites.
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Bangladesh
Cox’s Bazar camps
1,170,978 people
Figure as of 31 August 2026
Government of Bangladesh and UNHCR: 33 camps in Cox’s Bazar district, including Kutupalong. Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. A further 33,514 people on Bhasan Char are published as their own figure.
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Kenya
Dadaab
429,352 people
Figure as of 31 August 2026
Dadaab camp complex in eastern Kenya, from the Kenya statistics package as of 31 August 2026. Several camps in one operation.
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Kenya
Kakuma and Kalobeyei
323,662 people
Figure as of 31 August 2026
Kakuma 234,542, Kalobeyei 86,547, and Eldoret 2,573, grouped as one Kakuma area operation in the Kenya statistics package, 31 August 2026.
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Uganda
Bidibidi
210,568 people
Figure as of 31 August 2026
Bidibidi settlement, Yumbe District. Most residents were displaced from South Sudan.
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Jordan
Zaatari
45,364 people
Figure as of 31 August 2026
Zaatari camp. Most residents were displaced from Syria. Jordan population figures, 31 August 2026.
Sizes are operational figures for the date on each card. The list is these five large named settlements.
Sources
European Union border detections, 2024 and 2025
Detections of irregular crossings at the external borders of the European Union, published by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex). The same release names five routes.
A detection records a crossing. The same person can be recorded more than once, at different places.
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detections
2024
about 239,000 detections
- Compared with the previous year
- 38% lower
Just over 239,000 detections, 38 percent below 2023. Lowest since 2021 at the time of the 2024 release.
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detections
2025
about 178,000 detections
- Compared with the previous year
- 26% lower
Almost 178,000 detections, 26 percent below 2024. Lowest since 2021, and under half of the 2023 total.
Routes
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Central Mediterranean about 67,000
About 67,000 detections in 2024, 59 percent below 2023, second among European Union routes that year. In 2025 the agency still called this the busiest route, broadly in line with 2024. Departures from Libya remain the named factor toward Italy.
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Eastern Mediterranean 69,400
69,400 detections in 2024, 14 percent above 2023. In 2025 the route fell overall. The corridor from Libya to Crete more than tripled.
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Western Africa, Canary Islands about 47,000
Almost 47,000 arrivals to the Canary Islands in 2024, the highest since the agency’s records began in 2009. In 2025 detections on this route fell by around two thirds, from Mauritania, Morocco, and Senegal.
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Western Mediterranean No separate count is published for this route.
The agency reports an increase in 2025, mainly from Algeria.
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Western Balkans No separate count is published for this route.
Detections fell 78 percent in 2024 and fell again in 2025.
The nationalities detected most often in 2025 were Bangladeshi, Egyptian, and Afghan.
2024: just over 239,000 detections, 38 percent below 2023. 2025: almost 178,000 detections, 26 percent below 2024, the lowest since 2021. Where a route has a published count, the row shows that count.